


Snapshots

by lucdarling



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-31
Updated: 2011-12-31
Packaged: 2017-10-28 14:36:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/308916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucdarling/pseuds/lucdarling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Avengers Initiative, from the viewpoint of a S.H.I.E.L.D. surveillance tech.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Snapshots

“What are they doing?” Jackson Hartwell peered closer at the computer screen, watching the silent figures of the Black Widow and Hawkeye stop in a doorway and scan the unoccupied room. Rodriguez rolled his chair over to the rookie S.H.I.E.L.D. tech and watched the two superheroes. He flapped a hand at the monitor, covering a yawn with his other hand. It was only half past six in the morning, Rodriguez's watch read, way too early for these stupid questions.

“They're looking for any sort of unknown. You'll get used to them after a while.” He dismissed easily.

“But haven't they been in the room at least a dozen times now? It's the living room, fer chrissakes!” The newcomer protested, watching the two highly trained assassins cautiously enter before taking their seats on the couch. The Black Widow's fingers nimbly took apart the tv remote, scanned the contents and put it back together again just as fast before turning it on.

“Like I said, you'll get used to it. Now switch to camera A-3 in the outer hallway and start your hourly scan of the inside.” Rodriguez ordered, tapping buttons on his keyboard and bringing up his own camera views of the building's outside. “Welcome to being part of the S.H.I.E.L.D. surveillance crew. We see everything with no interaction.”

**

The first thing Jackson realizes is that superheroes are not normal. They are all abnormally handsome (or, beyond exceptionally beautiful in the case of the Black Widow and Jackson knows how Lee on the second shift keeps recordings of her working out and sparring with men twice her size) and most of them never stop moving. Even in sleep, Jackson realizes as the archer's body trembles from its reclined pose in the chair. Then the man realizes he's watching someone have a nightmare and a frown crosses his face. He doesn't ever want to know what these people dream of.

Suddenly Agent Coulson and the Black Widow slide into frame which shouldn't be possible, since Jackson damn well knew they had both been on the other end of the apartments in view of camera C-6 less than half a minute ago. Then again, the two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are not your average mortals. The surveillance man watches as the woman bends down to likely whisper something in Hawkeye's ear and he comes up swinging. She deflects his one-handed punches as the liaison agent starts talking, expression never changing from its usual calm demeanor. Jackson watches the screen avidly because this is better than a soap opera.

**

The men in the windowless room have a variety of bets as to why and how the younger woman in the science lab got picked up by S.H.I.E.L.D. All she seems to do is plot charts from seemingly endless piles of data, talk back to the lead scientist who is apparently dating the Norse God and headbang to her iPod. She has two, the crew is quick to notice but the location of the second varies. One is always on her person, usually in the front pocket of her jeans or hoodie; the second back-up stayed in her desk drawer for two weeks before being moved to the filing cabinet.

Their betting pool as to the reason why this occurs reaches $150 before Trey figures out that anytime Agent Coulson is seen in the lab, the iPod will move shortly thereafter. They all wonder what the story is but the rumors only report that something happened in New Mexico last year.

She's still more interesting to watch than the Avenger-scientist. Dr. Bruce Banner remains infuriatingly calm throughout most things though the whole room waits with bated breath after an assistant knocks over a piece of equipment. There's no green tinge to the pale skin so everyone relaxes and carries on with work.

**

There is a man wearing a suit, sitting in the chair next to Hartwell's own chair when he enters for work after his seventh month on the job. He idly wonders, as he tries to keep the sheer panic from showing on his face, if this is signaling his termination because this is the Agent Coulson standing in front of him. His quiet and unassuming air would be relaxing to most people, but everyone in this room has seen the man spar during the very early hours of the morning. He is a menace and not to be underestimated.

“Hey man, I just told my girlfriend I picked up a long-term contract with the feds, I never specified!” Jackson is defensive and throws his hands up in front of his body in a show of innocence.

“I'm not here about that, Agent Hartwell.” Agent Coulson stood and raised his voice for the next sentence, addressing the room. “I'm merely here to inform you all that all S.H.I.E.L.D. employees are on mandatory overtime until the debrief of the mission is over. Make your necessary phone calls and then get back to work.” He left with a short nod to the shift's supervisor. Jackson called his girlfriend, glaring at the supervisor who was unable to give him a time frame of how long this overtime might last. Reese leaned over from two chairs down and muttered the previous one had lasted almost a week since Tony Stark had flown back to Malibu in the middle of the night.

**

This is the first lockdown that Jackson has been a part of and it's rather fascinating. The six superheroes and the two women from the lab are sequestered in the suite, not allowed to leave. There's a moment of hilarity when Tony Stark picks up the single landline (connected to the tech room) and tries to order a pizza. Rodriguez is the one to take the call and his voice while denying the request is calm, the smile on his face is gleeful.

Two days into the forced downtime, only broken by Agent Coulson's arrival with paperwork, the techs all watch amusedly as the younger lab woman waves her arms and the others look up. She points excitedly to a stack of board games at her feet and appears to talk even faster. Jackson imagines her tone is cajoling and pleading but it seems to work on the group.

They start out with Monopoly on teams and it turns out that Captain America is very good at buying properties. By the end of the six hour game, it's Captain America and Dr. Banner against Iron Man and the lab assistant. The first pair hardly speak, moving their small top hat over the squares; the other two don't stop cracking jokes, if the continued laughter of Hawkeye is any indication.

“It's always the quiet ones, you know?” Adam says over his shoulder. The techs who bet on the other teams winning groan and hand over their earnings to him; his smile is predatory in the small room and Jackson makes a mental note to not bet against him anytime soon.

**

Jackson pressed a series of keys in front of him, staring blankly at the monitor that showed a dead hallway leading to the elevator. It was an elevator he'd never step foot on, a hallway in a building he'd rarely visited – the surveillance techs were housed in a building on the other side of Avengers Tower for fear of the tapes being leaked. The tech wasn't sure what any super-villains would do with the knowledge that Captain America liked Cheerios over Tony Stark's favored Frosted Cornflakes, or the fact that Tony Stark was something of an insomniac. He was pretty sure that last fact wouldn't surprise anyone though.

Jackson had to admit though, the paygrade with each security clearance S.H.I.E.L.D. offered was substantial, more than he'd make doing the same work for a corporation. Throw in the benefits package, health care and the fact that he was one of the few to see the Avengers sans masks? The man was pretty pleased with his job. Except for one: the cameras didn't transmit audio.

If the NDA consequences weren't clearly spelled out, (and he wasn't eager to see what 'or else' meant exactly, nor was the tech going to the first to sign up to take a trip in a plane and jump without a parachute), Jackson was sure he could make a lot of money selling the awkward courtship of Iron Man and Captain America to the news channels, tabloids and the internet in general.

**

The Game Night during lockdown nearly half a year later is even better than last month's because Darcy (Jackson eventually learned her name after she made a point of alternately waving at and giving the finger to the cameras) chooses Twister as their way to kill time. The plastic mat is spread out on the floor and the superheroes stand in a line as Dr. Banner holds up the spinner.

“It seems a bit unfair,” Jackson comments to Adam as they all put one body part on a red circle. “They're playing with the Black Widow. I heard she used to by a gymnast before she became an assassin.”

Adam scoffs. “I heard she was a ballerina but really, who cares? Just imagine that woman with those skills in your bed.” Jackson sees the point as, on the screen, she lifts her leg up and over Captain America's head so her toe touches the yellow. He keeps the remark that she'd be more likely to kill him without blinking to himself as Dr. Banner spins again.

Twenty minutes later sees Thor and Captain America on the sidelines. The god frowns when his girlfriend slides a hand under Hawkeye's chest to put a hand flat on a green circle and Jackson wishes not for the first time someone in surveillance could lip-read because Tony Stark's comment was more than likely lewd. Jackson and the others gathered around the screen watch as he gets his comeuppance though, toppling over when the Black Widow's foot seems to accidentally clips his head; the room laughs and the game is now between the two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, Darcy and the scientist.

Jackson wishes he had a pillow or a folder or something to put over his lap after Jane falls because the Twister game is now practically foreplay and it's giving him a boner. Tony takes up spinning and giving directions to the remaining three with a leer. They all watch as the two women work together to keep the archer in between them on the plastic mat, but Hawkeye certainly doesn't seem to mind if his half-lidded eyes are any indication. Their hands slip over each other, though Jackson has his doubts about how truly necessary Darcy's hand on the archer's bicep was. He's surprised the older woman doesn't just happen to trip her up when they shift to put their right hands on green.

As first thought, the Black Widow is the winner of the game. She grins, teeth flashing for an instant in victory and hauls Hawkeye up with one arm. Jackson, and the others gathered around behind him, watch as they leave one camera's view and step into the hallway. There are wolf whistles behind Jackson as they watch her press the taller man against the wall. The Black Widow isn't letting the height difference stop her, leaning up on her toes to kiss him as she simultaneously snakes an arm around his neck and pulls his head down. Hawkeye makes it easy, ducking his head as his hands slide into her red hair. None of the men watching through the video feed miss his extended middle finger on the back of her head though, and they all head back to their stations as the two slide off frame and into one of the bedrooms.

The last time someone had ignored such an obvious warning he'd ended up in the medical wing after getting assigned Hawkeye as a sparring partner during the mandatory fitness test. None of them knew how that had happened since the marksman usually sparred with either his lover or Captain America but word had spread quickly.

**

Agent Coulson is waiting for them in the middle of the room when they all return from lunch, arms crossed over his chest. He leans against the supervisor's desk, fingers tapping a staccato rhythm on the top of the monitor.

“I want you temporarily stop recording at four o'clock today and resume ten minutes later.” His voice is smooth and devoid of all inflection. “Do you think you can manage that?” The agent stalks out of the room without waiting for an answer and everyone in the room looks at each other. The request is certainly unusual but no one questions it out loud because he's Fury's right hand in all things Avengers-related.

The clock ticks over to four and they all power down, looking at their watches and the wall clock for ten minutes. Jackson uses the opportunity for a smoke break and catches sight of Dr. Banner exiting the building, leaning heavily on a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent he doesn't recognize.

Ten minutes later, the tech crew reboots and starts the video feed again. They resume their seats and go back to staring at camera angles of hallways, elevators and mostly empty rooms. Tony and Captain America are in the billionaire's workshop, bent over the engine of a very expensive car Jackson has only seen in magazines. The living room is empty, but the Norse God is seen exiting the kitchen. He's likely on the way to the science wing so Jackson flips to D-4.

Dr. Foster and Darcy are working in the lab, nothing is amiss there. When Jackson gets through the remaining cameras and performs his sweep of the interior, he notices Dr. Banner still hasn't returned. Well, the man is an adult despite the anger management problems; he's certainly allowed to leave HQ once in a while.

It's when the Black Widow storms into the living room an hour later, laptop balanced on her knees and she begins hacking into the S.H.I.E.L.D. surveillance system that they realize something is wrong.

Reese immediately tries to stall her with firewalls and security protocols. She sets the laptop aside halfway through breaking through them with ease that leaves Reese dumbfounded, scowling at the camera and running to the door off camera.

It is less of a knock and more of the door to the tech room banging open against the wall that grabs their attention away from the monitor. Agent Coulson holds up a hand when Reese begins to protest the hacking.

“Have any of you seen Dr. Banner?” The tone is measured and calm, like he could be discussing the recent cold front that had moved in from the ocean, not the potential kidnapping of a scientist with the ability to transform into a ginormous monster when angry.

Jackson is quick to volunteer that he saw the man on his smoke break. Which leads to more questions about who had authorized one in the middle of the work day. Then the discovery is that it hadn't been Agent Coulson who had made the request earlier that morning, it was just a very good copy of him. It's also about that time that an absolutely gorgeous woman (Jackson bets she used to be a model, at the very least) appears behind Agent Coulson.

“Where's my husband, Phil?” She is irate in the face of his calm.

“Betty, he'll be absolutely fine.” The woman scoffs with disbelief.

“You're just going to wait to follow the trail of destruction.”

Agent Coulson doesn't respond as Betty stalks away, taking a seat in Reese's chair to flip through the camera angles. Jackson watches as the man stares intently and leans over to look. There is a large package resting in the middle of the helicopter launchpad. A small green tag dangles from the packing tape.

It's soon surrounded by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, including the director and his deputies. Jackson wonders when Agent Coulson left the surveillance room but the rest of his brain is far more interested in watching Maria Hill carefully open the box with the patience of a bomb squad.

The tag twists in the breeze that ruffles the deputy's hair and Jackson catches sight of the letter L before the knife cuts through the tape. Director Fury's mouth moves rapidly as the unconscious form of Dr. Bruce Banner topples onto the ground, bright green dart sticking out of his neck. He's promptly carted away to the medical wing and the box is disassembled for research in one of the labs.

Jackson wonders how he can relate this drama over tonight's date with his girlfriend because she will never believe him, not that she knows he's on the fringe of the Avengers Initiative. He wonders who gift-wrapped the scientist and how the package ended up on the roof without anyone seeing or hearing anything. But that's not his job so he goes back to scanning the perimeter of HQ.


End file.
